Drone Collides With Boeing 737 at Mozambique’s TET
Jackie Reddy January 06, 2017
The craft was carrying 80 passengers and six crew members, but there were no reported injuries. The plane, however, did suffer damage to its fuselage.
A drone has collided with a plane at Chingozi Airport (TET) in Mozambique, a facility located approximately 930 miles north of the capital of Maputo.
The incident occurred on Thursday as the Boeing 737-700, operated by Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM), was descending to land at TET. The plane, LAM Flight TM136, was en route from Maputo and carrying 80 passengers and six crew members when the strike occurred.
While no injuries were reported as a result of the incident and the plane was able to land safely, LAM confirmed via a statement that the crew did hear the drone strike the craft.
As quoted by the Mirror, the carrier stated that, at the moment of impact, “the crew heard a bang, which alerted them to the possibility of the aircraft having made contact with an external body – but it didn’t disrupt the normal conduct of the flight.”
The airline, Mozambique’s flag carrier, also confirmed via a post-landing inspection that the plane had suffered a crack to the right side of its fuselage as well as to its nose dome.
Pictures of the plane have already been circulated online, with members of the public expressing their shock at the incident via social media channels.
The owner of the drone remains at large and it is not known exactly how the device came to be in the plane’s airspace.
LAM said that connecting passengers were transferred onto another craft while TM136 underwent repairs. The airline confirmed that the incident would be thoroughly investigated.
